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View Full Version : A New Breed Of Domainers?



Work In Progress
07-14-2007, 03:03 PM
Note: Some of this is re-hashing, but I think it needs to stay fresh on everyones mind!


1) Just how different is .mobi from traditional Tld's?
And how does / should it effect us?

Let's face it. We are pioneers in this infant stage of mobi's life. Just as new parents, we have the responsibility to mold our infant tld's future. We can't simply count on others.

Sure, mtld gave us the opportunity to do something many of us were too late to do with .com. That would be register generic, one worders and well searched terms / words at a reasonable reg fee.

We all know that hundreds of other extensions are out there promising to be the next best thing. But .mobi came to the plate well armed with a completely different solution to stand out from the crowd. That's one of the biggest reasons we are here now.

Now, the plot thickens....
Most of us have at the least "dabbled" in domaining prior to mobi. There is a proven track record of how to be successful in domaining with .com. The tried and true, old school method of reaping loads of $$$$ relying on direct type-in's to generic or well searched for parked sites works quite well. But how much are we relying on this with our .mobi sites? For those of you relying on making a killing off of parked mobi sites, I believe disappointment is in your future.

As domainers, we have been relying on prior search results and "popularity" tools such as OVT & Wordtracker, alexa rankings, and even archive.org to check the possible history of a name. With mobi though, there is no history to judge what might be a winner or a loser.

So, how different do we need to think when going after names? How much better is a one worder, whether short or long, than a more commonly searched for phrase which contains this single word? How different are mobile searches going to be from PC searches? I think we'll see a big difference in mobile searched terms / words vs PC searches (when and if these stats ever become available).

Since there is NO history of this Tld, we can only guess at this stage of how users will access our sites.(assuming of coarse, it takes off as we all expect it to).

I believe the largest majority of traffic to my sites will be from search engines. Not type-ins. Sure, they'll always be the exception to the rule, but again, IMHO, SE's will bring in the visitors. Effective SEO will be one of the most valuable commodities to your site. Once they've found you, it's simply up to your content and ease of use to see if users deem your site worthy of a bookmark and return visits. That's the biggest thing .mobi and .com have in common. Traffic = $$$

2) What can we do as a new breed of domainers?

We all know that mobi is different. Mtld recognizes this and is trying to make sure their reserved names are going to be well utilized. Not parked like so many .coms. Many of us are treating mobi similar to .com (and all of the other various extensions). Park it and hope for the best or wait for an offer. Make no mistake about it....mobi will fail and fail quickly if users keep running into parked sites with nothing but links (the majority to full-blown web sites).It's now time we as owners of many great names start treating it differently as well and nurture our investments.

How? It's been stated time and time again. Shoved down our throats. Develop. How are we responding? I don't see too many new sites being introduced here. Many of us are not programmers (including myself), but many others are very capable of coming up with very nice quality sites. To those like myself, there are FREE resources to build your sites on your own. Scandi's mentioned http://site.mobi (http://site.mobi/) . I've used it twice and both sites are on mtld's showcase. Neither are anything outstanding. They are fast and easy to use. Your site will score a 5/5 for compliance. The key is, it doesn't have to be a grand, mind blowing site. It doesn't take much to beat a parked page. Simple content will work. Just jump in and play with it. Everybody in this forum who has a vested interest in mobi has no excuse not to have at the least 1 live site. If you want this to succeed, you should have several. There are plenty of helpful people here for those of you who need it. Just post your questions so we can answer them.

I understand that many of us feel we have too many names to develop them all. I plan on doing just that. One at a time. Start them off simple and build on to them later. No excuses. Parking is fine while they're waiting to be developed. Just think of your parked names as being in a towing zone. You can only park them for so long before they'll be taken away.

Rest assured, you will be seeing more of mine transferring from parked to live.

As the great God Nike once said- "Just Do It!"
:smile:

Reece
07-14-2007, 04:54 PM
Can I hear an Amen? Rep added.

coast
07-14-2007, 07:05 PM
Well stated! Mine are only parked for as long as it takes me to master CSS and uploading/updating to my hosting service, which shouldn't be much longer. You can bet I'll want all 5/5's, keyword optimized and all over the showcase sites. Rep added.

Scandiman
07-15-2007, 05:35 AM
Wow, great post Work, some rep is headed your way.

We do have some history to guide us, though not much. Server logs will tell you a story. How are users finding you? Check the referring URL's. On my creeds.mobi, last week I got 91 uniques and 221 page views. The only referring url was from jumptap, total: 2. Romannumerals.mobi had 54 uniques with only 4 referring visits.

What story does your server logs tell you today?

Some folks are experiencing some success with parking but no doubt developing the sites is FAR superior. With the various mobile ad networks and google mobile adsense in beta there are increasing financial motivations to develop. I get better traffic and have earned more money at my cheesy supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.mobi than I have on any of my parked names. If that doesn't tell us something I don't know what does. And it's not because my parked portfolio is crap.

Many folks simply want to buy low and sell high. That is your right as a domain owner and I respect that. But if there was something you could do to raise the value of your portfolio, wouldn't you do it? What's cool is there is something you can do. Pick a name or two in your portfolio and build it. Sure it can be intimidating at first for those with little or no experience but you can do it.

Sure I will sell some of my names but my real goal is to have my mobi's working for me, earning money and creating positive cash flow. When you see revenue in your ad network account, you'll be hooked.

Additionally, consider putting your commitment to development in writing. We've already started talking about it here. http://mobility.mobi/showthread.php?t=240&highlight=develop

photoman
07-15-2007, 09:03 AM
I think http://mtld.mobi (http://mtld.mobi/) have done a tremedous job in promoting this new extension.

Badger
07-15-2007, 10:33 PM
I think http://mtld.mobi (http://mtld.mobi/) have done a tremedous job in promoting this new extension.

Are you sure.. I think the root registry is nothing better than the .EU central reg... What promotions have they done exactly??

photoman
07-15-2007, 11:00 PM
Are you sure.. I think the root registry is nothing better than the .EU central reg... What promotions have they done exactly??

I believe that they promote the extention through the informative links they provide on their site such as dev.mobi, ready.mobi. I believe the use of my word promotions/promoting are two different things (a bit misleading on my part)

Work In Progress
07-16-2007, 04:49 PM
Additionally, consider putting your commitment to development in writing. We've already started talking about it here. http://mobility.mobi/showthread.php?t=240&highlight=develop

Written commitment completed!

Thanks for the link, encouragement, and reps from all

Back to work:smile: